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Greek government extends bank holiday to July 15

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Athens, July 14 : The Greek government has announced that the banks in the country would remain closed till July 15. The closures were introduced on June 29 in view of the debt crisis, a media report said.


The finance ministry on Monday said the banks would remain closed also on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.

The statement was issued after the European Central Bank's (ECB) governing council during a teleconference earlier on Monday decided to leave the financing cap for Greek banks through the Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) unchanged, Xinhua reported on Tuesday.

Eurozone leaders agreed a conditional deal on Monday to provide up to 86 billion euros (about $89 billion) of financing for Greece over three years.

It included an offer to reschedule Greek debt repayments "if necessary", but there was no provision for the reduction in Greek debt that the Greek government had sought, a BBC report said.

Parliaments in several eurozone countries also have to approve any new bailout.

The bailout is conditional on Greece passing in parliament by Wednesday all the agreed reforms - including raising tax revenue and liberalising the labour market.

Finance ministers from all 28 EU countries are holding a scheduled meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, where they will discuss Greece's continuing debt crisis.

The International Monetary Fund announced earlier in the day that Greece had gone further into arrears by missing a debt repayment for the second consecutive month. It was due to pay 456 million euros ($500 million) on Monday and now owes 2 billion euros (about $4 billion).